The
time has come- to stop being idle bystanders and begin actively making change
within our educational institutions. I recently came across an article from
the CEO of Chegg, Daniel Rosensweig about the need to disrupt education in
America. Although we have talked extensively on this issue in class and on our blogs- I can not begin to stress the importance of our country really needing to transform the current educational system that is set in place. Instead of advancing with time, especially our K-12 educational system, has continued to remain stagnant. Sure our classrooms are now outfitted with computers, e-readers, and iPad's but most of the actual academic content has remained the same. So much so that students are only being taught what to know on standardized tests and not having the opportunity to be creative or artistic.
Although America's institutions of higher learning continue to be highly regarded by many around the world, even this level of learning is facing stumbling blocks.
The CEO of Chegg, Daniel had his company do a recent study to asses the current jobs that were available and at the same time examined the majors of the most recent college graduates. This is just a brief and troubling summary of the findings from this study:
"Fifty-four percent of jobs in San Jose, California fall within the area of IT, but only 2 percent of students in the area are graduating with IT degrees. Thirty-nine percent of the jobs in Columbus, Ohio also fall within the area of IT, but only 2 percent of students are graduating with IT degrees. And, in Miami, Florida, 36 percent of the open jobs are in the accounting/finance field and just 4 percent of students in the area are graduating with accounting/finance degrees."
As an undergraduate who graduated with a double major of German & Political Science, I am actually not that surprised by these results. For me I'm simply not interested in pursuing a career in IT but I do know of so many who could truly excel and clearly who could find jobs if they had the necessary academic qualifications. Yet at the same time, the cost of getting this one piece of paper has become astronomically high. There are so many challenges that America's education system (both K-12 and even higher education) are facing and although not everything can be solved immediately, we should at least begin baby stepping to a solution.
In closing, once again I think Daniel Rosensweig, makes a very valid point with this statement: "The time is now to fix our failing education system. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, this is an American and economic issue."
To read more of Daniel Rosensweig' illuminating article, click here.
No doubt we need to repair our education system. But I am not sure that "allowing students to learn what they want, when they want" via video, website etc., as Rosensweig argues, is really the fix that is needed. There is huge consumer demand for online and video-based education, no doubt, but very little evidence that it actually works. Education is one area where the consumer-- by definition, the un- or half-educated-- does not know best. Traditional classrooms and face to face interaction between the student and professor remain the norm for a reason: it has a proven track record. And it doesn't require the sort of technological infrastructure required for online education. There are other reasons, I think, why what Rosensweig wants would be dangerous. For one, there is lots of evidence that people's interaction with online texts tends to be shallow and distracted in a way it isn't with traditional printed books. Sigh. I could go and on about this. My fear is here at NCC we will be pushed into doing more and more online only classes. And I think that would be a bad thing.
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